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Say Smith unresponsive in escalation of attacks against police
CHAIRMAN of the Jamaica Police Federation, Corporal Raymond Wilson, yesterday blasted the national security minister, Derrick Smith, for what he described as Smith's non-responsive manner in the face of an escalation of attacks against members of the force.
The latest cop to be cut down is 55-year-old Sergeant Errol Brown, who was assigned to the Montego Bay Highway Patrol.
Police said Brown's bullet-riddled body was found in his yard by neighbours just after dawn yesterday. Officers said they received reports that explosions were heard in the area but they found nothing when they first searched the area. Brown is the fourth lawman to be murdered since last week and the 20th for the year.
Yesterday, Wilson was on the warpath as he lambasted what Smith's apparent nonchalance in the face of the onslaught against law and order.
"The Police Federation is quite disturbed that to date we have not heard nor seen anything that we believe is any immediate step by the minister of national security to address the situation where law enforcement officers are being deliberately targeted by criminals," Wilson said. "We know exactly what is motivating them (criminals), they are motivated by the fact that nobody seems to care, especially our employers."
Government, said Wilson, was moving with haste to set up structures to combat police excesses but didn't seem to be moving with the same haste when it related to stemming the vicious attacks on his colleagues.
Wilson said he was not opposed to regulatory bodies being set up to curb unlawful behaviour by members of the constabulary, but questioned why such a body was taking priority over the deaths of policemen and law-abiding citizens.
Wilson, in the meantime, has written to Acting Commissioner of Police Jevene Bent, asking her to bolster the resources available to the police who are assigned to work in St James.
Yesterday, one of Brown's colleagues recounted that he last spoke to him on Wednesday night and both agreed that "the first one to wake up the following morning should call the other".
But the distraught cop lamented that early yesterday morning he called his colleague's telephone repeatedly without getting a response.
He was further ruffled later upon learning of the demise of his friend, whom he said was a "good, good man".
Sergeant Brown's murder follows closely on Sunday evening's slaying of police sergeant Alan Lindsay in Glendevon, St James.
The police reported that the 53-year-old Sergeant Lindsay, who served the Jamaica Constabulary Force for 33 years and who was assigned to the Montego Bay Freeport Police Station up to the time of his death, was on patrol in a section of Glendevon, St James known as Dallas, Texas.
Lindsay's murder followed the killings of two cops last week - one of them Assistant Commissioner Gilbert Kameka, the highest ranked policeman to be slain in recent history.
CHAIRMAN of the Jamaica Police Federation, Corporal Raymond Wilson, yesterday blasted the national security minister, Derrick Smith, for what he described as Smith's non-responsive manner in the face of an escalation of attacks against members of the force.
The latest cop to be cut down is 55-year-old Sergeant Errol Brown, who was assigned to the Montego Bay Highway Patrol.
Police said Brown's bullet-riddled body was found in his yard by neighbours just after dawn yesterday. Officers said they received reports that explosions were heard in the area but they found nothing when they first searched the area. Brown is the fourth lawman to be murdered since last week and the 20th for the year.
Yesterday, Wilson was on the warpath as he lambasted what Smith's apparent nonchalance in the face of the onslaught against law and order.
"The Police Federation is quite disturbed that to date we have not heard nor seen anything that we believe is any immediate step by the minister of national security to address the situation where law enforcement officers are being deliberately targeted by criminals," Wilson said. "We know exactly what is motivating them (criminals), they are motivated by the fact that nobody seems to care, especially our employers."
Government, said Wilson, was moving with haste to set up structures to combat police excesses but didn't seem to be moving with the same haste when it related to stemming the vicious attacks on his colleagues.
Wilson said he was not opposed to regulatory bodies being set up to curb unlawful behaviour by members of the constabulary, but questioned why such a body was taking priority over the deaths of policemen and law-abiding citizens.
Wilson, in the meantime, has written to Acting Commissioner of Police Jevene Bent, asking her to bolster the resources available to the police who are assigned to work in St James.
Yesterday, one of Brown's colleagues recounted that he last spoke to him on Wednesday night and both agreed that "the first one to wake up the following morning should call the other".
But the distraught cop lamented that early yesterday morning he called his colleague's telephone repeatedly without getting a response.
He was further ruffled later upon learning of the demise of his friend, whom he said was a "good, good man".
Sergeant Brown's murder follows closely on Sunday evening's slaying of police sergeant Alan Lindsay in Glendevon, St James.
The police reported that the 53-year-old Sergeant Lindsay, who served the Jamaica Constabulary Force for 33 years and who was assigned to the Montego Bay Freeport Police Station up to the time of his death, was on patrol in a section of Glendevon, St James known as Dallas, Texas.
Lindsay's murder followed the killings of two cops last week - one of them Assistant Commissioner Gilbert Kameka, the highest ranked policeman to be slain in recent history.
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